Orange & Apricot Roasted Chicken with Yucca & Couscous

Tags

apricots, cooking, couscous, dinner, family, food, home, orange, roasted chicken, yucca

When I was growing up I used to spend weekends at my grandparents’ apartment in Coney Island. They had a round table that fit four people, although the fourth seat was in the corner so only a very dexterous kid could climb in. My grandma would feed us in shifts. First the kids: my two siblings and me (my youngest brother wasn’t born yet), then the adults: Grandpa and my parents. She never set a place for herself. Her time was spent serving, preparing the salads, tasting the soup, seasoning the pots, preheating the oven, setting the brand new microwave, making sure Grandpa took his pills. She would pick at the food, a little from here and there as she worked, tasting a spoonful of the marinade, pulling a piece of roasted chicken.

I’m sure that she had other meals in the repertoire, but along with various soups and salads, kugels and knishes, the two main dishes I remember eating every time I came to Grandma’s house were roasted chicken with apricots and carrots and Grandma’s Famous Meatballs, as we called them, the smell of which assaulted us as soon as we opened the door to her lobby, making our tastebuds spew and our stomachs grumble.

The biggest battle (aside from dealing with us) that we ever saw between our grandparents was the battle over leaving the skin on the chicken.

“For crying out loud, would you just leave the skin on the chicken?” Grandpa would plead as Grandma peeled away the risk of heart disease. Grandpa’s father and his father’s father and his brother had all died of heart attacks.

Grandma was stubborn. “I’m not letting you go anywhere. You’ll eat it how I give it to you.”

We would all cry out, “Grandma, stop being so mean to Grandpa.” She would tell us, “I’m saving his life.” 

She was. And she was teaching us, in the truest sense, what love is.

The biggest battle we ever had as kids with Grandma was fending off heaping helpings of seconds and thirds. A healthy kid is a heavy kid and Grandma measured her love in food. She always wondered why we were all so thin. We weren’t.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about “home” lately. What makes a home a home, who makes a home a home and how can a home develop, grow and change. I was thinking about these battles, which defined our family’s dining experiences. Home is more than just food, but I do know that all of my memories associated with home include food. In the grocery store yesterday, I just gravitated toward all the ingredients of what I call home: Grandma’s apricot roasted chicken and carrots, my mother-in-law’s yucca, my mom’s couscous. Before I knew it, I had all the ingredients to build a home. I added my touch with herbs and seasonings. It tasted like, not to be hyperbolic here, the best meal ever…even if I know I’ve made more complex, unique and diverse foods.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken (about 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs) skin on.
• 1 yucca chopped rougly
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 1 orange sliced thinly with skin on
• 1 cup water
• 1 lb bag of baby carrots
• 1 cup Israeli couscous
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 handful cilantro (leaving extra for garnish)
• 4 springs of thyme (leaving extra for garnish)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 475F. Combine all ingredients in a very large mixing bowl to create a marinade. If you’re going to leave the marinade overnight, don’t include the couscous. If you’re going to cook right away, feel free to wet the couscous as well. It’s okay to add the carrots and yucca later if you don’t want to include them in the marinade.

Transfer all of the ingredients to a large oven safe pan. Try to set all of the ingredients up in a single layer, spread evenly throughout the pan.

Place in 475F oven for 45 minutes. Afterward, remove from oven and garnish with more cilantro and thyme. Serve hot.

Dátiles – Spanish Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Turkey Bacon

Tags

almond, datiles, goat cheese, stuffed dates, tapas, turkey bacon

Dátiles Para Endulzar El Alma (Dates to Sweeten the Soul)

This is one of my favorite tapas dishes. Everywhere in Spain and all over New York City, I’ve tried the dátiles. Its magneticism lies in the contrast of flavors, textures and sometimes a hint of herbs at the finish from the goat cheese. So much complexity from such a simple dish awakens the palate and rouses the tastebuds.

The sweetness of the dates and saltiness of the turkey bacon layers itself perfectly over a soft, tart bed of goat cheese. The crispiness of the turkey bacon is the opener to the smooth date, which gives way to the creamy goat cheese. Hiding in the middle, an almond replaces the pit adding the coup de grace, texture and nutiness.

This is a relatively quick appetizer to make, but it requires a little bit of patience in its construction, especially if, like me, you bought whole dates instead of pitted dates. Once you get the hang of it and find a rhythm on the assembly line, you pop them in the oven for 15 minutes and will be devouring tapas with an almost kinetic flavor in no time.

Ingredients:

• 16 dates (pitted)
• 6 tablespoons goat cheese
• 1 package of turkey bacon (about 12-16 pieces)
• 16 whole almonds
• 16 toothpicks (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to about 500F. You’ll want the oven very hot.

Inside the cavity of each pitted date insert a whole almond. Fill the rest of the date with a generous amount of goat cheese. Wrap the stuffed date in 1 piece of turkey bacon each. Place end-side down on a baking sheet and place it in the oven. Let cook for 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Buen provecho!

Batido de Mamey – Cuban Mamey Milkshake

Tags

tropical

I love batidos, milkshakes, with an island flair. One sip of this batido and you’ll be transported to Cuba, via Miami. The best version I’ve had of this batido was in Versailles Restaurant in the Little Havana part of Miami, Calle Ocho. It was so good I almost fell off my seat.

Mamey sapote is a sweet, salmon-colored tropical fruit that resembles a papaya and is native to the Carribbean islands. I like mamey better than papaya because it’s a little sweeter, its flavor more distinct. The Latin markets often sell frozen mamey pulp, but I was in luck this week at the grocery store when I found a bunch of whole fresh mameys. As soon as I saw them, I knew what was coming.

Opening a mamey is like opening an oyster. In the middle of its sweet, salmon-colored flesh is its pearl–a large black seed in the shape and color of a mussel. Remove the seed and the flesh falls easily away from the skin, requiring virtually no effort. Throw the pulp in the blender with a splash of milk, some ice, a spoonful of sugar and/or sweetened condensed milk, blitz and you will be sipping on a delicious tropical dream. Buen provecho!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mamey pulp
• 1 cup skim milk
• 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons sugar (to taste)
• 1/2 cup crushed ice

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until ice is smooth. Pour into cups and drink.

Spring!

Tags

fruit, plants, seasonal, spring, vegetables

Gadshill: We have the receipt of Fern-seed–we walk invisible.

Chamberlain: Now, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night
than to Fern-seed for your walking invisible.

–Shakespeare, Henry IV, act ii, sc. 1 (95).

Today I don’t have a specific recipe for you. I’ve actually spent most of the week acquainting and reacquainting and myself with the bounties of spring. I’ve been creating different salads, making tacos with radishes and cilantro for cinco de mayo. I made different and interesting varieties of spring rolls whose pictures did not do them justice. I even sprung for some fiddlehead ferns and blanched them alongside a stir fry dish I’ve shared with you before. They’re bitter and taste like the earth, but in a good way. Maybe that’s why in the Middle Ages, people believed that carrying “fern seed” would make you to disappear from sight. I can see where a cloak of invisibility would be useful, but I too, like to believe that I’m more beholding to the night than to fern seed for my walking invisible.

I just wanted to celebrate the fact that the leaves are back on the trees, the weather is warm, and I can start to entertain the idea of coming back to life in a way where winter’s cold doesn’t sag inside me like a wet sail wherever I go. Don’t get me wrong, winter has its joys, but spring is the unassailable winner when it comes to cooking, playing outside, sports and sunshine.

When I was growing up, just north of the city, we used to have wild strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and mint leaves growing in our backyard as part of the landscape. It didn’t realize what a luxury that was until I no longer had that. Now my appreciation for these gifts has grown tenfold. 

This weekend I plan to start an herb garden on my windowsill. While the fire department mandates that the fire escape remain unimpeded, they mention nothing about the windowsill. I’m hoping to cultivate some basil, cilantro, rosemary and lavendar.

I’ve got some great recipes coming up this weekend all prepared to the tune of spring. May you enjoy the wonderful weather and sun. Keep cooking!

Jerusalem’s Burnt Eggplant and Couscous Soup

Tags

burnt eggplant, couscous, garlic and onions, Jerusalem, lemon juice, soup, tomato, vegetarian

It is difficult for me to resist anything with the words “smoky,” “charred,” or “burnt” when it’s done purposefully and pureed into a thick liquid.  Because Tasting Jerusalem hosted a couscous contest and a few of the entries featured this soup (see Hannah’s winning entry on Blue Kale Road), I thought I would give it a go as well!

The fresh tomatoes interact with the tangy lemons and teasing the flavor out of the sauteed, deep purple eggplant. The charred flavor of the roasted eggplant flesh clings to the texture of the couscous and weaves its way into every conversation and flavor combination in this soup.

Leaving the eggplants to char over the open flame of my burner, required more attention than I had to give. Instead, I broiled them in the oven at about 500F for a little under half an hour. Then I rotated them on the burner for a couple of minutes to make sure the skin bubbled a bit.

Remove all of the charred skin and you’ll taste that the flavor is infused perfectly in the flesh. Don’t leave a little on for good measure. You just want a hint of the roasted flavor of the eggplant. You don’t want to risk actually making your whole soup taste burnt. With the ease of execution and the bounty of flavor to boot, this dish is definitely a keeper.

Ingredients:

Adapted from Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

• 2 large eggplants (about 2 pounds total)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 pound tomatoes, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/3 cup Israeli (giant) couscous
• Fresh dill, oregano or cilantro for garnish
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 500F. Slice one of the eggplants in half lengthwise and set aside one of the halves. Pierce the whole and remaining half eggplant a few times and place in the oven. Let cook for about 20-25 minutes. When blackened or soft remove from oven and let cool. If the eggplant hasn’t begun to char, the put it directly on a burner with a flame and rotate until evenly charred.

Dice the raw half of eggplant into a small dice. In a large sauce pan or soup pot, drizzle a little olive oil and fry the eggplant over medium heat. Stir a couple of times, so most of the sides brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

Add another drizzle of olive oil and the onions and cook over medium heat the onions are soft. Add the cumin, tomato paste, tomatoes and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the water and lemon juice, bring to a simmer and then lower heat. Let cook for about 15 minutes.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the couscous. Stir and toast it until it browns. Watch closely, as it will turn dark and burn quickly. Add enough water to cover by 1 inch, a sprinkle of kosher salt and bring to a boil. Cook until just softened, about 8 minutes (depending upon your brand). Drain and set aside.

Remove the cooked eggplant flesh and add to the tomato base. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until mostly smooth. Reheat gently and add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with the fried eggplant and herbs. Serve the couscous in a bowl alongside, allowing everyone to scoop out what they’d like.

Simple Salmon Kebabs

Tags

bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, chopped vegetables, red onion, salmon cubes, salmon kebabs, zucchini

If you’re not afraid to get a little bit aggressive with the chef’s knife, this is the dish for you. Little risk, lots of reward. I have some really delicious Turkish and Moroccan marinades I’ve been meaning to brush along the salmon to embellish its natural flavor, but for this one, I elected to let each component speak for itself. The sweetness of the charred bell peppers, zucchini and the clean sweet burst of roasted yellow and red cherry tomatoes complements the mild flavor of the fish in its natural state. Chop it all up, put it on a stick, throw it in the oven or on the grill and you’ve got a delicious and colorful spring dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon, 
• 2 bell peppers, red, yellow, orange and/or green, chopped into thick 1-inch square chunks
• 1 red onion, thickly chopped into 1-inch squares
• 1 green zucchini, sliced into half-inch pieces
• 8 oz cherry tomatoes, red or yellow

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Soak 3 or 4 cooking sticks in a bowl of water. While they’re soaking, remove the skin from bottom of the salmon with a chef’s knife. After all of the chopping is finished, load the vegetables and salmon onto the sticks. I like to do a pattern of one cube of salmon then three vegetables, but it really doesn’t matter.

Insert into oven for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Perfect Spring Salad

Tags

arugula, blackberries, blood orange, figs, salad, spinach, spring, spring greens, vegetables, vegetarian, white string beans

Before I started writing here, I had no real clue which fruits and vegetables were ripe with the season other than the ones with which I grew up (berries, onions, corn and squash). Writing about food and cooking more has piqued my interest in seasonal ingredients because frankly, they just taste better. Learning is as easy as visiting a local market. This weekend I saw some very foreign looking produce that if viewed in the wild, I would never have thought were edible, or if you were to eat them, some sort of mystical spell would be cast upon you (see fiddlehead ferns). However, I also saw some absolute beauties that gently lured me away from the school of restraint and comfort. I was wooed by a spring mix of leaves and flowers that inspired this salad. I packed this one to the brim with gorgeous spring luxuries and blooms, my official way of embracing the season and leaving the austerity of winter to tremble in its wake.

While figs aren’t quite in season yet, they had these beauties at the market at a much more reasonable price than in the winter. Combine the sweet syrupy figs with blood orange, snap peas, white string beans and the blossoms of arugula and you’ve got the most visually stunning and flavorful salad I’ve ever seen.

 Ingredients:

• Mixed spring greens
• Snap peas
• Fresh figs, halved
• Blood orange, peeled and quarted
• Arugula blossoms
• Blackberries
• White string beans, cut in one inch pieces

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Toss together and plate. Squeeze extra juice from the blood orange as a dressing. Add salt and pepper, oil or vinegar as desired or just enjoy the juices of the fruit alone with the salad.

 

Pollo Molido – Mexican Ground Chicken

Tags

achiote, ancho, chicken, chili pepper, cotija cheese, ground meat, Mexican, pollo, tomato

The biggest benefit of cooking your way through various cookbooks is that you get a sense of ingredients that certain cultures use so that you can create or modify a dish in a flash using what you have on hand, while maintaining authenticity to the region, if not to a certain dish. When working with ground meat of any sort, the meat is like the canvas and the spices are like paint. It is the spices that transport you to your region of choice.  With a desire for warmer weather and to steep myself further into Latin American cooking, I decided to go South and begin with Mexico.

In this dish the chilis do the heavy lifting, providing a smoky flavor and depth. Add a little coriander for variety. If there were a tell-tale secret ingredient here, it’s the achiote powder, made from annatto seeds, bringing a slightly nutty, peppery taste, with a hint of sweetness to the flavor palette.  A few slices of chorizo enhance that flavor. Tomatoes, onions and potato absorb the flavors and provide a hefty foundation upon which to build this dish. Crumble some Mexican cotija cheese over the top and you’ve got yourself one authentic Mexican pollo molido.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground meat/turkey/chicken
• 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
• 1 tablespoon achiote
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 1 red chili pepper chopped and seeds removed
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 potato (I used sweet potato because of an allergy), chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 small (6 to 8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 link chorizo (optional)
• 1/2 cup cotija cheese

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl combine the first five ingredients and mix with your hands.

Warm a large skillet on medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onion and cook until they begin to brown (3-4 minutes). Add the potato and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Then add the ingredients from the bowl, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes until brown. Add the tomato sauce then the chorizo, stir. Let simmer for about 10 minutes until all the ingredients are softened and cooked thoroughly. Serve warm. Top with cotija cheese.

Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Kiwicha with Yogurt, Fruit & Honey

Tags

breakfast, cinnamon, fruit, kiwicha, nuts, quinoa, vegetarian, yogurt

Kiwicha is another Andean super-grain like quinoa - an ancient crop cultivated for thousands of years by civilizations like the Incas. Like quinoa, the seeds of the kiwicha plant are very high in protein and have more amino acids than most other grains. Kiwicha is smaller than its better-known counterpart, about the size of a poppy seed, and is often labeled in the store as “amaranth.”

Today I decided to kick-start breakfast with something warm and nutty. Tempted by the flavors of cinnamon and sweet honey, this protein-rich bowl is an excellent way to power the day.  I normally reserve a grain like this for a savory side, but here, the earthiness of the kiwicha is enhanced by the texture of the toasted almonds. Topped with sweet fruit, yogurt and a drizzle of honey, the savory takes on a hint of sweet, which in turn enhances its nutritional value. It sure beats a bowl of cereal.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic skim milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup organic kiwicha or quinoa
• 1/2 cups dried cranberries and yellow raisins
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted
• 1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 4 teaspoons honey

Directions:

Combine milk, water and kiwicha in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. Stir in dried fruit and cinnamon; transfer to four bowls and top with almonds. Drizzle 1 teaspoon honey over each serving.

Turkey Stuffed Quince with Cilantro

Tags

cadamom, cilantro, ground lamb, ground turkey, lemon juice, stuffed quince

This weekend I read a very interesting article in the New York Times Magazine about spices and their ability to transport you through the direct link between our olfactory senses and memory. It resonated with me because of my connection with all of the recipes in Jerusalem. They’ve cast their spell upon me in such a way that each time I sit down to eat these dishes, my apartment feels more like “home” than ”a home.” I’m at once struck by the familiarity and foreignness of the dishes, left to guess whether the familiar aspect comes from the quality of the dishes and the foreign lies in the amalgam of spices or vice versa.

I had to make this dish because I finally found quinces in my local market! The interesting part about this dish is that I make a Latin version of it, chopping up the quince instead excavating their cores for stuffing. My Colombian mother in law serves us quinces a lot in the form of jams, pastes and sauces. I buy them at the Latin market when I can get there, but they’re more scarce in mainstream markets.  When I saw this recipe online, I had to give it a go. It combined both of my worlds and serves as an excellent bridge for my move into some more Latin inspired dishes. The sweet and savory are packaged in a sophisticated classic that leaves your salivary glands spewing.

Another Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi adapted from recipe as printed in The Province.

Ingredients:

• 400 g (14 oz) ground lamb — here I use turkey
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 red chili, chopped
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) chopped cilantro, plus 30 ml (2 tbsp) for garnish
• Scant 125 ml (1/2 cup) breadcrumbs
• 5 ml (1 tsp) ground allspice
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) finely grated fresh ginger, divided
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped (325 ml/1 1/3 cups in total), divided
• 1 large free-range egg
• 4 quince (1.3 kg/2 3/4 lb in total)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus 15 ml (1 tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil
• 8 cardamom pods
• 10 ml (2 tsp) pomegranate molasses
• 10 ml (2 tsp) sugar
• 500 ml (2 cups) chicken stock
• Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, place lamb, garlic, chili, 125 ml (1/2 cup) cilantro, breadcrumbs, allspice, half the ginger, half the onion, egg, 3 ml (3/4 tsp) salt and pepper to taste. Mix well with your hands and set aside.

Peel quince and halve them lengthwise. Put them in a bowl of cold water with the juice of the 1/2 lemon so that they do not turn brown. Use a melon baller or small spoon to remove seeds and hollow out quince halves so that you are left with a 1.5-cm (2/3-inch) shell. Set scooped-out flesh aside. Fill hollows with lamb mixture, using your hands to push it down.

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan for which you have a lid.

Place reserved quince flesh in a food processor, blitz to chop well, then transfer to pan along with remaining onion and ginger. Add cardamom pods. Saute for 10 to 12 minutes until onion has softened. Add molasses, 15 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice, sugar, stock, 2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt and black pepper to taste and mix well.

Add quince halves to sauce, with the meat stuffing facing upward. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover pan and cook for about 30 minutes. The quince should be completely soft, the meat well cooked and the sauce thick. Remove lid and simmer for a minute or two to reduce the sauce if needed.

Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with 30 ml (2 tbsp) cilantro and pomegranate seeds.